Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea on Sunday after opening fire on them and wounding several sailors, a move that risks igniting a dangerous new crisis between the two countries.
Russia’s FSB security service said early on Monday its border patrol boats had seized the Ukrainian naval vessels in the Black Sea and used weapons to force them to stop, Russian news agencies reported.
The FSB said it had been forced to act because the ships — two small Ukrainian armored artillery vessels and a tug boat. — had illegally entered its territorial waters, attempted illegal actions, and ignored warnings to stop while maneuvering dangerously.
Ukraine denied its ships had done anything wrong, accused Russia of military aggression, and for the international community to mobilize to punish Russia.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held a meeting with his top military and security chiefs amid talk of imposing martial law.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called an emergency meeting of his top military leaders on Sunday after Ukraine says that Russia rammed a navy tugboat, fired on two other Ukrainian naval gunboats and seized all three.
Poroshenko’s spokesperson tweeted out the meeting saying, “Due to extraordinary events, the president convened a military cabinet.”
Через надзвичайні події на Азові Президент скликав військовий кабінет.— Svyatoslav Tsegolko (@STsegolko) November 25, 2018
Reports say that Russia then seized all three of the Ukrainian naval ships after a short chase.
This occurred off the coast of Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed from Ukraine in 2014 against the warnings of international leaders, including then U.S. President Obama.
In a statement, Ukraine says their Navy gunboats Berdyansk and Nikopol were fired upon, hit and disabled. The navy tugboat was forced to stop after being rammed.
Earlier in the day, Russia scrambled two fighter jets to monitor the Ukrainian naval ships.
Poroshenko tweeted Sunday calling out Russia’s covert ‘war’ against Ukraine saying, “We highly appreciate the efforts of the World Congress of Ukrainians in bringing to the world public the truthful information about the war, which Russia has unleashed against Ukraine, political prisoners, oppression of human rights and freedoms in Crimea, in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts”
Russia has opened fire on Ukrainian ships and captured three vessels in a major escalation of tensions off the coast of Crimea.
Three sailors have been wounded after the Ukrainian navy said two artillery boats were hit by the strikes in the Black Sea.
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko called an emergency session of his war cabinet and said he will propose that parliament declare martial law.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said it used weapons after the Ukrainian ships ignored demands to stop and that it impounded three vessels which had illegally crossed the border.
The three injured sailors are receiving medical treatment and their lives are not in danger, the FSB said.
Ukraine's ambassador to the UK said Russian special forces had captured two armoured artillery boats and a tugboat in an "act of aggression".
"Today's dangerous events in the Azov Sea testify that a new front of Russian aggression is open," Ukrainian foreign ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa said.
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